The Kirkuk terminal is pumping crude into the system. Dowrah refinery is working well.

The Ramallah Oil Fields are working but the link pipeline has developed a break. The worry is that the break was caused by ordinance and it will require EOD clearance as other bombs maybe in vicinity prior to fixing. This will effect the flow to Basrah at a critical time. Work is being undertaken to by pass the area effected so that the damage can be isolated and hopefully minimised.

Supplies are being received at fuel stations. However we have reports of lines of cars at some stations. Diesel remains available but gasoline is in short supply. Prices vary from 20 ID per litre for 80 Octane and 50 ID per litre for 90 Octane. We would expect a price rise during the next week for gasoline. This will revert downwards soon when the Basrah Refinery comes into production

The national requirement for consumer hydrocarbon products is around 15M litres per day. Dowrah produces 3 M litres per day. The others refineries are Baiji 8 million, and Basrah 4 M litres per day. The looting had a huge impact on the gasoline production. The stocks of tetra ethylene was dumped on waste ground in Baghdad as the looters wished only the barrel. This cost around $8,000 per ton.

The Oil industry is run by the Iraqi companies and in the main workers have returned and last week they were paid by the companies. The Coalition appears to adopting an attitude of let them run it and they have adopted a procurement role in support. The lack of internal communication is a major difficulty in gathering information.

It is hoped that later in the week a map showing in a simple traffic lights system the availability of fuel around the country.

LPG is an area that we need to address. The major filling plants around Baghdad (Taji, Rasafa and Dowrah) are nearly out of supplies and the price has risen over 20 times from 250ID to 5000 ID. To resolve this we require the large production facilities at Kirkuk and Basrah to push product. We are investigating when this will happen. The poorer sections of the society will be effected almost immediately.

The electrical power network is around 20 % running but is dogged by some internal disputes.

A meeting of the Northern & Southern Oil Companies was held at the Oil Ministry under the supervision of the senior deputy minister, Dr Mazen Juma. They concluded that it was critical to pump crude to get the associated gas to replace stocks at the production plants.